1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to mobile devices; and, more particularly, to the ability to access or support agriculture services for farmers.
2. Related Art
Often, a farmer working on a farm may need to communicate with others, and employs a cell phone to talk with others. Although cell phones can be used for accessing web sites and for remotely retrieving data, farmers are often incapable of doing so for several reasons, including lack of technical skills, unfamiliarity with new applications, inability to read, etc. Current data services are not designed for use by semi-literate individuals, such as farmers in underdeveloped countries where educational levels are very low.
Similarly, when an uneducated or non-literate individual tries to access a data service on a mobile phone, not only are screens of data provided to the individual of little use to him (due to his inability to read them for example) but also navigation of typical screens on a mobile device are cumbersome and not helpful to such an individual. Thus, such individuals are unlikely to subscribe to data services and the operators are not likely to suffer lower revenues/ARPU (average revenues per user) too. When operators roll out expensive 3G and 4G data services, they need to get around this problem of making the mobile device useful to uneducated and illiterate users, but they don't seem to be able to easily surmount this problem.
Mobile devices have been used to take pictures, send pictures and receive video programs. But quite often, people who are unfamiliar with a device and are intimidated by technology are not able to take the pictures properly or to subsequently use them or transfer them.
A substantial numbers of farmers in countries such as India and China are semi-literate, and would not be able to read data provided on a mobile phone, or even interact with screens of information provided. Also, farmers in these countries are not likely to be proficient in English, and there is a need to address their needs better. However, no operator is addressing their needs adequately and new services for farmers are not being designed taking into account their illiteracy or semi-literacy. Thus in such countries, framers currently use mobile phones primarily for voice services, and they can do not consume data services.
These and other limitations and deficiencies associated with the related art may be more fully appreciated by those skilled in the art after comparing such related art with various aspects of the present invention as set forth herein with reference to the figures.